If your worst nightmare involves a fishing trip in which you lose a finger to a gator that gets you in a death roll after latching onto leg for 40-some minutes, catch up with 28-year-old Australian mine worker Todd Bairstow sometime. He can tell you how it really feels.

Both his legs were broken in the death rolls and he was up to his neck in water when a hero rescuer heard his screams.

The local man jumped in to the water in a selfless act of courage to save Todd's life, his family exclusively told The Courier Mail in an interview.

Bairstow, an avid fisherman, pig hunter and outdoorsman, told friends on Facebook how he was "living the dream'' in the wilderness of Cape York where big crocodiles are a familiar sight in creeks and waterways.

"Off to mow down some pigs after shift,'' he noted in his latest Facebook entry.